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Jamberry is bringing back 12 Sister’s Style Exclusives from the last year and they will be available Black Friday through Cyber Monday! You heard me right, your favorite styles that you thought were gone forever, are back for a limited time starting Friday, November 28 at 12:01 a.m. through Monday, December 1 at 11:59 p.m. MDT.

And YES! These wraps are eligible for the Buy 3 Get 1 Free offer!

There is also a Special Black Friday wrap when you spend $50 or more!

Remember to get your orders in by December 10th for US and December 1st for Canada to ensure Christmas delivery!

Most importantly, a portion of the proceeds from each of the 12 Sister’s Style Exclusives will be donated to the Salvation Army to help provide holiday gifts for children. Proceeds for U.S. buyers will go to the Salvation Army in the U.S and Canadian buyers’ proceeds will go to the Salvation Army in Canada.

A few months ago, B had pneumonia. We followed all of the necessary procedures, antibiotics and rest. Ok, that last part not so much — try and keep a 15-month old still; not easy. So when he got a fever after being on the antibiotics for a few days, we took him straight to the Emergency Room.

I have to give the doctors and nurses a huge shout out. Through all my panic and worry, they were very calm and supportive. They kept me informed that he would need a chest X-Ray. Have you ever taken a 15-month old to have an X-ray? It’s heartbreaking. Not only was he uncomfortable, but he wasn’t allowed to move as they took the pictures, and the machine is scary even for me. I can’t imagine what he was going through.

I’m so thankful that it turned out his pneumonia was gone, and at our follow up it turned out to just be an ear infection. If it was anything worse I’m not sure what I would do, but I had a good feeling the supportive medical staff at our hospital would have been there with me every step of the way.

I’m honored to inform you about the Children’s Hospital Foundation, one of which is right here in Richmond.

The Children’s Hospital Foundation is a non-profit organization. They have dedicated funding and advocating for pediatric initiatives that improve the status of health care and the quality of life for children in our region. They are the support for the programs and initiative that the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU and the children there. They also help with other pediatric health programs around Richmond.

Since they are the only full-service children’s hospital in the region, they see over 50,000 children and their families a year from all over the country.

Monetary gifts are used for the general operations of Children’s Hospital of Richmond, including maintaining a staff of pediatric specialists in a facility designed just for children, operating 24 hours a day.

By donating today, you’re helping the day-to-day operations of the hospital and help fund the wonderful and loving staff and specialists.

For a little taste of the wonderful staff and volunteers, check out this lip-dub to “Roar” by Katy Perry featuring the nurses and even a couple of VCU Basketball players!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI87bnojZas

If you wish to donate (and I do hope you will!) you can do so through the Fundly here. Any and all donations will benefit the organization.

As part of a class project I am raising funds for the Children’s Hospital Foundation with a group of classmates. Any size donation is welcome. By clicking through to the Fundly link, you can donate directly to the organization. ALL proceeds go to the Children’s Hospital Foundation.

Today, I’m 3.5 weeks into the semester, and I’m already over it. It’s a lot of work, and I knew that going in. I overestimated myself; working, doing school and making sure I can focus on bonding with that stinky child of mine.

Today I had a conversation with my friend about how over this semester we really are. Words were said about how I couldn’t see straight anymore (ok. it was a sinus headache. Thanks allergies.) I may have been over-exaggerating a little bit, but really: it’s hard work. We want school to be over and have big girl careers and move on with our lives.

No one said it would be easy. But, I’ve also been doing the Whole30, and let’s be honest: I want a cookie to cope with my stress. It’s only half-way through September…

But I remember how worth it it is and the sense of accomplishment I will feel when the semester is finally over. Ain’t no better feeling. I mean, let’s be real: I got this.

I’m off to research time-management tips instead of finishing an assignment.

Beck’s chicken allergy has been a tough one because we ate A LOT of chicken pre-diagnosis and we had to quickly change our eating habits. It’s been particularly tough with daycare because chicken is always on the menu at some point during the week. So we are always looking for easy substitutes.

Lunch meat is an obvious and Beck loves his turkey and ham (we just tried Hillshire Farm Naturals – no preservatives or artificial flavors = win!).

Veggie burgers (we love black bean burgers!) are great for days they serve chicken patties or chicken nuggets which let’s be honest is quite often.

Same goes for dinner. We keep these staples on hand for days we eat our chicken dinners. Easy peasy substitutey.

And thanks to Hillshire Farm for sending us some sample of their new Naturals line. The only thing missing is the stuff that you don’t want your kids eating! Love the flavors – especially the ham. Check them out!

A few months ago I was alerted by my son’s daycare teachers that he had a massive blowout. When I picked him up, I found him in an outfit that wsn’t exactly expected. Pink. Ruffles. Bright colored tucan animal on the front. B looked like a girl.

Don’t worry, I shortly restocked his clothing awaiting the next blowout — I didn’t expect it would be that week though. This went on for about a month. Three weeks after the blowout episodes started, he broke out in hives all over. The odd thing was he hadn’t eaten anything new or come into contact with anything new. After speaking to the pediatrician we were referred to an allergist and B was tested using the scratch test.

My toddler had some odd allergies. Chicken. Egg. Milk. Oats. This made everything fall into place. He had been allergic to milk and eggs since he was a wee little baby, but we thought he outgrew it. He had chicken nuggets right before the hives. Oats? Yeah. No idea there.

I used to fly by the seat of my pants for meals, now I’m a planner and a connoisseur (woah. just kidding) on allergen substitutes when it comes to the daycare’s menu.

The first step: Stop serving milk and switch to soy-product dairy substitutes like this here Silk Yogurt.

I participated in an Ambassador Program on behalf of MomCentral Consulting for Huggies. I received product samples to facilitate my review and to thank me for my participation.

We have participated in a HUGGIES® sponsored campaign with Mom Central, testing out their HUGGIES® Little Movers Slip-On® Diapers. We’ve been HUGGIES® users since B was born because they’ve kept him dry, didn’t leak and didn’t cause diaper rash. They are the only brand that met all three criteria.

B’s running around now, being all busy and such. It was great to try pull-ons for home and we really do like them. I like how easy they are to adjust. I was a little skeptical going in though because since I work at a day care during the day, I’m kind of an expert on diapers. The one downside of pull on diapers is that you have to take the pants off all the way to put them on. I guess you could undo them and put them on like a diaper, but that defeats the purpose, no?

You can save $1 on any one package of HUGGIES® or if you share a link to it with three friends, you can save $1.50 on any Huggies Slip-On diapers. Please note, you will be required to register with Huggies.com prior to obtaining the coupon. http://huggies.com/firstfit

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. The products received were given to me for free, the party and the fun were all real!

A few weeks ago we recieved the best package since Christmas: our #Disneyside @Home Celebration kit!

Inside the box was a suitcase from American Tourister which held all of the goodies I used to help me throw my party, plates, cups, napkins, cookie cutters, decorations and more!

Today we put it all to good use, and the result was a super fun Mickey-ful celebration!

Our party had five toddlers and their moms, mostly my friends from work at the daycare and school. We had good food and crafts for the kids. They filled the rest of the time playing with all of B’s toys he never plays with and watching Disney Junior. This was the first party B’s had with friends (his first birthday was family only) and there wasn’t any fighting! We all had so much fun and I can’t wait to have another Disney Side Celebration!

I made Mickey pizza bites (tutorial coming soon) so I could say I didn’t *only* jack the kids up on sugar.

I found this great tutorial to make a treasure map cupcakes here. I didn’t include all of the candy in the tutorial this time, but you can certainly go all out!

We had a fun craft with our Hanes t-shirts. Instead of coloring, we made the shirt decorating toddler-friendly by making stamps out of sponges and letting them stamp their own Mickeys!

The decorations even provided a lot of excitement with the kids!

Also in our kit were some face-painting tutorials, but since we were dealing with one to three year olds who don’t sit still for long, we opted for tattoos. These kids got all inked up!

You can host your own #DisneySide Celebration in your home too! You can find party recipes, themes, and more ideas here! Your Disney Side celebration doesn’t have to be a party (although it will certainly feel like one). It could be a play date, girls (or boys) night in, sleepover, etc. All you have to do is add a little bit of Disney magic and you’re sure to be the host with the most!

I received free products in order to host the Disney Side @Home Celebration. The opinions expressed here are my own.

I haven’t been myself lately. I think back to the times that I was happy and felt fulfilled; I exercised daily, ate relatively well, and spent a lot of quality time with my friends. These days, I wake up at 6:30 in the morning with a baby, and go to bed at 8:00 at night with a baby and not much in between that does’t deal with baby.

It’s probably not much of a surprise to you, if you have kids, that it’s hard to do something for yourself on a daily basis. I was juggling two jobs, school, and baby as well as day-to-day “what-will-we-eat-tonight-and-have-I-brushed-my-teeth” stresses. I don’t workout anymore, and the only reason I weigh less than I did before I was pregnant is stress. Straight up stress.

I needed something for me. Something healthy, an attainable goal, and something fun! I have always wanted to run a marathon, or 10K. Ok. let’s be real. a 5K was really going to be the goal there. My friends were runners and I was…well let’s say I walked most of the mile in high school. This might not surprise you either, but I love Disney, and I love Disney Princesses. When I learned about their Disney Princess Half Marathon, I literally went on a high of running or pretending I was a runner (after a mental freak out.) I never committed.

The other night, I decided I’m committing to training to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon. My goal date is in 2015 (that’s the attainable and reasonable goal part.)

Following this post here will be a sequence of New Year, New You posts. I don’t feel like me, and I have a feeling 2013 may have put you in the dumps as well. Let’s get out of it! I have a feeling 2014 will be “our year,” our comeback year.

I’m not saying run the half-marathon with me, but I’d love to see you at the finish line!

When I was younger, I used to go out on the swings in our backyard. I would spend hours there. It was my serenity. I could swing, and swing, and swing and just escape. I spent a lot of time day dreaming like the 10-year-old I was about marrying a prince. A modern day Cinderella. Totally realistic, right?

The other day, we decided to take B to the neighborhood playground and swing. His first time in a real swing, not just the ones used to rock infants to sleep. He loved it. Just like his mommy.

They’re back! And this time they are touring the globe getting in to all kinds of shenanigans. They are joined by Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell (love him from Modern Family) and Miss Bossy Pants herself, Tina Fey. The movie releases on March 21, 2014.

I’m so excited to share with you this teaser trailer — enjoy!

Starring Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell and Tina Fey, Disney’s “Muppets Most Wanted” takes the entire Muppets gang on a global tour where they find themselves unwittingly entangled in an international crime caper.